1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a moving image has a huge amount of data, and thus moving image data has been commonly compressed before the moving image is stored, transmitted, etc.
A typical method for compressing moving image data is moving-image coding which combines inter-frame coding, such as MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), etc., and intra-frame coding.
In order to improve the coding efficiency of the moving-image coding by the MPEG system, many proposals have been made on the method of performing pre-processing on a moving image.
For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-352546, the occurrence of block distortion after coding is suppressed by applying a low-pass filter on an image as pre-processing.
However, in the method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-352546, the suppression of the occurrence of block distortion at the time of coding is intended, and it is unavoidable to have losses in detail by the application of the low-pass filter.